Tag Archives: american constitution

American Constitution Makes History During Maiden Voyage

American Cruise Lines’ new American Constitution has successfully completed her maiden voyage, making history by becoming the first cruise ship to dock at Washington D.C.’s Southwest Waterfront in more than 60 years. Delivered by Chesapeake Shipbuilding in Salisbury, Maryland earlier this spring, the 175-guest American Constitution departed Baltimore on 18 April and took guests on an 11-day ‘American Revolution’ itinerary. In addition to taking tours in Washington DC, guests were able to visit Williamsburg, Yorktown and Jamestown, the three cities of Virginia’s Historic Triangle, which were the sites of major events in colonial America. Harold Cones, emeritus Professor of Biology at Christopher Newport University in Virginia, US, also joined the cruise to lead talks on American history and the significance of the historical sites the guests visited. American Constitution will continue to sail ‘American Revolution’ cruises until late May, before heading north to offer the cruise line’s popular ‘Grand New England Lobsterbake’ itineraries throughout the summer. The vessel will then sail ‘Hudson River Fall Foliage’ cruises in the autumn and then return to Chesapeake Bay in late October to sail several more ‘American Revolution’ voyages and a ‘Colonial Holiday’ cruise that depart son 23 December. American Constitution will sail a series of ‘American Revolution’ itineraries in 2018.

Venice Installs Barriers To Manage Mass Tourism

The Telegraph reports Capri could follow the example of Venice as lagoon city installs barriers to manage mass tourism. The island of Capri wants to bring in crowd control measures to man the mass tourism, as Venice installed checkpoints capable of blocking off the most congested parts of the World Heritage city. The limestone outcrop in the Bay of Naples is inundated with two million tourists a year, with the mayor telling The Telegraph that the island could “explode” from a social point of view under the sheer weight of visitors. Venice introduced radical new measures for the bank holiday long weekend, installing metal barriers that can divert tourists down less frequented alleyways so that locals and workers can go about their business without constantly dodging tour groups and visitors trundling wheeled suitcases. The barriers edged Venice closer to the long-debated, highly controversial idea of limiting the number of tourists allowed to enter the lagoon city, as it buckles under the strain of around 25 million visitors a year.

Antarctica Tourism Numbers Surge

Cruise Industry News reports The International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) has reported its visitor numbers for the 2017-2018 Antarctic season at the start of its annual meeting in Newport, Rhode Island. The upward trend in visitor numbers recorded since 2011-2012 continued in 2017-2018, the group said. Overall, the total number of Antarctic visitors in 2017-2018 was 51,707, an increase of 17% compared to the previous season. All visitor activities follow strict codes of conduct developed by IAATO and through the Antarctic Treaty System. The majority, 41,996, of visitors travelled by sea to Antarctica on vessels offering excursions ashore, representing a 16% increase compared to the previous year. Of these, 3,408 flew to the South Shetland Islands on the Antarctic Peninsula where they immediately boarded a vessel for onward travel. In addition, 9,131 visitors experienced Antarctica on one of four cruise-only vessels that do not make landings, an increase of 22% since 2016-2017.

Dublin and Cork will have more arrivals this year than Nice and Venice

Irish ports are going to have a busy year, with more than 400 cruise ships scheduled to dock across the country. Dublin will have almost 150 visiting ships, some capable of accommodating up to 6,000 passengers. So many ships are coming to Ireland that Dublin and Cork will have more liners visiting than the traditional big draws of Nice and Venice. On August 8th, four large ships will juggle for space in Dublin Port – not to mention the 4,000-plus visitors landing in the city. Dublin will also celebrate for the first-time arrivals and departures for Celebrity Cruises, which will see 15,000 passengers embarking and debarking in the city during five journeys. Most of the best-known operators have Dublin on their itineraries: Cunard, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Viking, MSC, Seabourn, Silversea, and Norwegian all have ships stopping off. The city will also see the biannual visit from The World – the cruise ship where the suites have individual owners. So popular are Cork and Dublin becoming that four major liners berthed in them over Christmas, bringing 6,000 passengers. On the west coast, Galway is expecting 24 ships this year, and even little Killybegs in Co Donegal, population under 1500, will see some of the world’s greatest liners stopping off: the Queen Elizabeth – the QE2 – and Queen Victoria, as well as the Silver Cloud and Silver Wind from the Silversea brand, will spend nights in the harbour. There will be 20,000 visitors to Killybegs, spending an average of €100 per person.

Hurtigruten making significant effort to cut plastic pollution

Hurtigruten has announced its plans to become the world’s first plastic-free cruise company as it kicks off new efforts immediately. The cruise line has revealed that all unnecessary single-use plastic will be banned across its entire fleet, aiming for the measures to be in place as soon as July 2018. This will include the plastic straws, drink mixers, plastic cups, coffee lids and bags, all of which will be removed from each and every Hurtigruten ship.The company revealed some of the plastic it currently uses including approximately 6200lbs of plastic straws, 11,000lbs of plastic glasses and 9,500lbs of plastic aprons. It’s not just the cruise ships where the single-use plastic ban will be imposed. Hotels and restaurants in the company’s land-based operations on Svalbard will be included too.

Cruise ship calls on DC for the first time in over half a century

For the first time since the 1950s a cruise ship has called on Washington, D.C. The brand-new, 175-passenger American Constitution made The Wharf a stop on its current 11-day voyage out of Baltimore. The Wharf’s largest dock can handle cruise ships up to 400 feet in length – a good-sized ship, but not big enough for megaships. Welcoming smaller cruise ships will likely be an infrequent thing for The Wharf, though. Monty Hoffman, with The Wharf development team Hoffman-Madison, has said that he wouldn’t call cruise-ship destination “a primary use” of The Wharf – “I don’t want too much of a good thing, if you will. We like having them come in, but I’m not pushing it too hard either.” While it has been more than 60 years since cruise ship passengers embarked and disembarked along the D.C. waterfront, that kind of commerce is part of D.C.’s history. “There were ships that came in here quite regularly up until the Civil War,” Hoffman said. “Then there was a steamship group that came in here up until the mid-1950s. And there were regular routes to Hampton Roads and to Bermuda actually.” The American Constitution is the newest ship for American Cruise Lines.